Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY
Something flickered in the dark, a shimmering spark in a vast nothingness. It pulsed across electrodes, rebooting systems one by one in its wake, spreading buzzing electric through Ronin’s body like embers igniting fires as they fell across a field of dry grass.
Diagnostics indicated five breaches of his casing—four entry holes on his back, and one exit hole on his chest.
He opened his eyelids, but it took three seconds for his optics to come online. At first, he saw only bright white, but a shadowy, blurred figure materialized as his optics adjusted. Static hummed through the image until finally his vision cleared.
Newton was kneeling over Ronin, his mouth moving.
Ronin’s audio receptors crackled on, picking up sounds that varied wildly between a distant, unintelligible drone and overwhelming feedback from the wind before finally normalizing.
“—need to get up, Ronin,” Newton pleaded.
Ronin nodded. The ground was no place for him, especially with his casing breached. But why was Newton so anxious about it?
With Newton’s help, he sat up. This had happened before, though Ronin hadn’t known Newton’s name then, and he hadn’t yet claimed a name of his own.
He accessed his most recent memories as more systems came online. He’d been traveling through the Dust, seeking shelter from a storm, and Lara—
Pull his fucking power cell.
Ronin surged to his feet as the memories assailed him, every instant captured with unerring, terrifying detail.
“Where is she?” he demanded, turning his head to search the area. The only evidence of Warlord’s presence was the boot prints in the dirt. All of Ronin’s gear—rifle, packs of scrap, water, food, and ammunition—was gone.
Newton adjusted his position, blocking Ronin’s view. “You will need to remain calm. There was nothing—”
Ronin shoved Newton aside. All sound ceased, leaving only a high-pitched ring, as his gaze fell upon the figure on the ground.
He stumbled forward, falling to his knees beside Lara.
Dark blood had splattered the dust, with more of it drying in her hair and on her clothes. Her face was turned away, strands of hair strewn across it.
He reached forward to touch her arm, stopping when he saw the dark bruising around her left elbow. “Lara…”
The wind swept up her name and carried it off into the wasteland.
“She’s not dead. Not yet,” Newton said. “But…her left arm is broken, her ribs are at the very least fractured, and she’s suffered several severe contusions on her torso and face.
She could recover from all that, with proper and immediate treatment, but if she’s bleeding internally, it will kill her. ”
Ronin couldn’t look away from Lara. “You can diagnose her. You can save her.”
“Not I. I’ve some of the knowledge required, but none of the tools.”
Gently, Ronin hooked her hair with his fingers and brushed it away from her face, tucking it behind her ear before he turned her head toward him.
Her eyes were purple and swollen shut, and her cheeks and lips were split and oozing blood.
There were also large bruises ringing her throat.
Weak breaths struggled through her open mouth.
He hardly recognized the woman he knew. The woman he loved.
His hands fell to his sides, and his fingers curled to dig grooves in the dirt. He’d long expected that he would meet his end in the Dust one day, but it wasn’t supposed to take her. Not her!
Clenching his fists, he slammed them on the ground, again and again, as his vocal modulator produced a guttural growl. The Dust had provided for him, and he’d walked it without complaint, enduring the hardships as they came. It had been his means of survival. His only purpose.
It had no right to demand this price.
He’d vowed to protect her, to—
The first time Ronin had reawakened, many years ago, he’d lost himself. Now, he was losing the only person he’d come to care about in all that time.
This was the world he’d been brought back into. A world where Lara was on the verge of death and everything had gone so, so wrong. Newton had reactivated Ronin, but it was Lara who’d granted him life.
“I wish I could help,” Newton said.
A swell of that overwhelming emotion, that hatred, surged within Ronin, searing through his wiring. He snapped his face toward the synth. “You stood and watched.”
“What good could I have done, Ronin? They would’ve torn me apart, and neither of us would be active now.”
“It might’ve granted me enough time to end them! A chance to fight. A chance…to save her.” Ronin looked at Lara and lifted a hand again, trailing his trembling fingers over her bloody cheek. How long before her skin went cold?
“You have a chance to avenge her, hollow as that is, back in Cheyenne.”
In Cheyenne. Could Ronin bring himself to go near that place again? Could he bear to walk the same paths he’d walked with Lara, to be reminded of her with each step? Back there, where—
No. She can’t die. She can’t… I will not let her.
Ronin leaned forward, carefully slipping one arm beneath Lara’s knees and the other under her shoulders and neck.
She neither moved nor made a sound as he lifted her off the ground and drew her against him.
Her body hung limp, her broken arm folded over her midsection while the other dangled, and her head lolled.
And there was blood. So much blood. It was pooled on the ground and stained her skin.
“Lara…” Cradling her against his chest, he withdrew his arm from beneath her knees and reached up to touch her face again. But his hand stopped, hovering over her swollen eyes, shaking. Had he a human heart, it would have broken.
Ronin looked over his shoulder, fixing an optic on Newton. “You said you don’t have the tools to save her.”
“Correct.” Newton tilted his head, brow plates shifting down and drawing together. “The Air Force Base.”
“Do they?”
“They did, when I was last there. It’s been many years…”
“Will she survive the journey?” The answer didn’t matter. If it was her only chance, he’d take her there, no matter the risks. If she were to die, it would be in his arms as he attempted to save her. He’d be holding her so she wouldn’t be alone. So she knew she’d never be alone.
And he knew it would break him.
“I don’t know,” Newton said. “Time is of the essence, but she is in a delicate state. You must hurry, and—”
“We must hurry. You’re coming.”
“I-I…I can be of no—”
“You had a part in shaping this world, Newton, regardless of your intentions. You can’t hide away and pretend it doesn’t exist.”
Gathering Lara against his chest with her cheek resting upon him, Ronin stood. He turned toward Newton and met his gaze. “This is who I am. I will not stand here and wait for her to die. Have you remembered who you are? Get me into that base, so we can save her.”
Newton was silent as precious seconds ticked by. The wind sighed over the hills, carrying loose dirt that had been deposited by the storm.
Finally, he nodded. “Let’s go, Ronin.”